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About the Score

Christina Rossetti, a leading poet of the late 19th century Victorian movement, is known for the imagery and symbolism in her literary works. A generation younger than Elizabeth Barrett Browning and a contemporary of Emily Dickinson (Rossetti and Dickinson were both born in December of 1830 - Christina on the 5th and Emily on the 10th), Rossetti was the fourth child born in a richly talented family, each member a teacher, artist, writer/poet, or critic. Titled "A Christmas Carol" by Rossetti, the text of "In the bleak mid-winter" first appeared in 1872 in a holiday issue of Scribner’s Monthly, which had asked Rossetti for a contribution appropriate to the season. Though she never collected the poem in any of her own books, her brother William included it in an edition that he published in 1904, ten years after her death. The poetry-loving Gustav Holst recognized the poem’s choral possibilities and in 1906 composed a setting with the melody heard in this arrangement. The carol has long been a favorite of the arranger of this particular setting, who has selected three stanzas from the original five. Premiered December 2021

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